Archive for August, 2015

With ARC August ending soon, I realized that I should give away the books that I’ve read. I have no place for them in my room anymore, and it’s better to let them go or else I’ll think these books are still on my TBR list. I want to give other readers the opportunity to read them (if they hadn’t already). Most of them were good, and others were not for me. That’s totally fine.

From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a stunning thriller about a girl who must escape to freedom after the Berlin Wall divides her family between east and west.

With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family divided overnight. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can’t help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.

But one day, while on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?

I received this book for free from Scholastic in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: “There was no warning the night the wall went up. “

What made me interested in A Night Divided initially: You don’t get a lot of YA books about the Berlin Wall, so when I heard that A Night Divided centers around it, I knew I needed to read it.

I love comics and graphic novels, so what do I do with that love? Well, I turn it into a new feature!

From Panel to Panel is a new feature where I talk about the awesome (and perhaps not-so awesome) comic books and graphic novels I’ve read. Basically, this will be me pushing them onto your laps. You’re welcome.

Oh hey, remember this? Where I talk about comic books and graphic novels I’m excited about? It’s finally here! Apologies for the absence of this post last month. I was only excited about two comic volumes, so I procrastinated on the post. But hey, at least we have a lot of awesome ones that are out right now, right?

Let’s talk about those July and August graphic novels I’m excited about (and you should too!). You’ll see ones by awesome writers like Brian K. Vaughan (Saga), Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Phonogram), Marguerite Bennett (A-Force, DC Bombshells), and many more.

ABSOLUTE Y: THE LAST MAN · VOLUME 1 HC

Written by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Ex Machina, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad) and illustrated by Pia Guerra, this is the saga of Yorick Brown—the only human survivor of a planet-wide plague that instantly kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome. Accompanied by a mysterious government agent, a brilliant young geneticist and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick travels the world in search of his lost love and the answer to why he’s the last man on earth.

This Absolute Edition will feature the first twenty issues of this action-packed series along with special script pages, character sketchs and cover gallery.

Why I’m excited: I’m a big fan of Brian K. Vaughan’s work because of Saga, so I’ve wanted to read more of his works. Y: The Last Man is one of Vaughan’s well-known comics, and lots of people have sung praises about this comic. I find this comic intriguing because it sounds like it has awesome world-building and trippy story lines. I know I can get the trade paperbacks, but I kind of want to get this hardcover because it has an awesome slip case.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Cas inherits two things when his dad dies: 1. the ghost-hunting job with the intention of avenging his death, and 2. his dad’s athame that has powers effective enough to kill the dead. He follows and investigates the ghost lores his trustworthy contacts tips him with, which sends him all over the country, never sticking long enough to make friends. After Cas kills County 12 Hiker, he, his white-witch mom, and their cat Tybalt, leave for Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada, where he goes in search of the ghost, Anna Dressed in Blood. There, he discovers that there are other powers lurking in the shadows.

I love fonts. You can say I’m obsessed with collecting them all. It’s no secret to those who know me. You’re Just My Type is a new feature where I showcase the fonts I absolutely adore and use. And hopefully, you will love the fonts I pick. Add all of them to your font collection! Let it grow!

In need of new fonts? I’ll take your silence for a YES.

In this batch of fonts, you’ll see a lot of gorgeous lettering that make your eyes turn into hearts, and lined fonts that cut into the letters.

Go forth and add these fonts to your font book!

(Remember, when you download the fonts, look at the license to see what you can and cannot do with it. Majority of it will be for personal use only, meaning you can’t use it for commercial products.)

An astonishing literary debut about a young man who, in the search for clues into the disappearance of his mother twelve years earlier, discovers himself in the process.

Recent high school graduate and aspiring artist Walter Stahl lives with his ailing father in the dregs of Las Vegas, their lives overshadowed by the disappearance of Walter’s mother, who drove off when he was five and never returned. Although Walter has never so much as seen a photograph of his mother, it doesn’t stop him from keeping an eye out for her in the groups of tourists he caters to in his dead-end job along the Strip.

Then Walter meets Chrysto and Acacia, a brother and sister working as living statues at the Venetian Hotel, and his world cracks open. Spending less time caring for his father, and more time riding on the backs of Vespas and drawing, Walter finds life has more to offer than he could have imagined. But as his feelings for Chrysto deepen, and as clues behind his mother’s disappearance start to reveal themselves, Walter is forced to face the truth about himself and his family history.

Threading through this coming-of-age story are beautiful and heart-wrenching graphic illustrations, depicting how Walter’s mother Emily, a Vietnamese-born accordion player, abandoned her family to chase a vision of Liberace across the country; and how Walter’s father went searching for her amongst the gondolas of the Venetian Hotel.

In Still Life Las Vegas, the magical collides with the mundane; memory, sexual awakening and familial ties all lead to a place where everything is illuminated, and nothing is real.

I received this book for free from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: “She drove the blue Volvo station wagon away from Vee’s house with a sober determination, like it was a lame horse she was leading out of the barn.”

What made me interested in Still Life Las Vegas initially: It’s a hybrid novel—part prose and part graphic novel—and has a half-Vietnamese gay protagonist! These are things that you don’t see often in books, so I instantly knew I had to read it. Would you say no?

about me

I'm Cee, queen of all things delightful!
Well, in my head.

The Novel Hermit is written by a daydreamer who loves books and thinks they are absolutely delightful. You will find YA, reviews, comics, discussion, letters, fonts + book cover love, and lots of fangirling squealing. What more can you ask for?

Disclaimer

All of the books I review either have been purchased by me, borrowed from the library, and sent to me by the publisher (the latter of which I will note). All the words and opinions in this blog are my own. I am not paid to write reviews. Synopsis are taken from either the back of the book or from Goodreads.com. Any use and/or duplication of my material without permission from me (the author and owner of The Novel Hermit blog) is strictly prohibited.